You Are Being Tracked, Evaluated and Sold

An analysis of digital inequalities

Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute and Atlantic Fellows programme

If our personal data is traded in milliseconds up to 70k times per day, what does this mean? Should we care? Are we aware? Does it matter? Is it possible to escape?

In this talk, Bev Skeggs draws on research that uses software to track the trackers (Facebook) and identifies how a person's browser use is tracked and searched in detail for sources of potential value that can be sold to advertising companies. She argues that if we want to know how inequalities are being shaped in the present and future we need to understand the opaque mechanisms that operate through stealth and experiment with our personal disclosures.

You are being trackedProfessor Bev Skeggs talks about the generation of digital inequalities Frank Huang - Dida Media

Bev Skeggs (@bevskeggs) is Academic Director of the Atlantic Fellows programme in the International Inequalities Institute at LSE.

Seeta Peña Gangadharan is Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. For four years prior, she served as Senior Research Fellow at New America’s Open Technology Institute, addressing policies and practices related to digital inclusion, privacy, and “big data.”

Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Martin White Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the LSE International Inequalities Institute.

The International Inequalities Institute at LSE (@LSEInequalities) brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead critical and cutting edge research to understand why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.